5 Culture Recs for August
1) American Bulk by Emily Mester
When this came out, I thought it was like a self-development book on American consumerism and how to stop buying so many things (something I def need to help with lol), but instead, it’s a much more poetic reflection on how much we consume, but from a tender place of— as the subtitle puts it—“excess,” how what we own can be both enjoyable and overwhelming, how we do need to stop but just because sometimes we wake up buried in stuff?? I feel like this book actually is helping me buy less, even though it’s much less like life coach vibes and more like hanging out with a friend who also buys a lot of stuff & whose family buys a lot of stuff, and you’re like yeah, maybe we both should stop, but also I like talking about it with you? I’m about 80% through with the book, according to my e-reader, and so far, there has been an essay about working at ULTA, one about Costco, one about her hoarding grandma and shopping-loving dad. I find myself looking forward to reading these—every essay is as juicy and thoughtful as the one before.
thanks for reading on & on! i write weekly & you can subscribe 4 free if you wanna know about it. <3
2) No Sense in Wishing by Lawrence Burney
I read an interview Lawrence Burney did in Poets & Writers, which made me want to pick up this book, and it is !!!! such a refreshing and deep reflection on rap culture, while also considering where he was when he heard these artists and connecting with the music the way you only can when you both respect it and know where it’s coming from. I’m a little more than a third of the way through so far, but have loved getting to experience Baltimore through Burney’s perspective. He’s someone who both sees where it can grow and also loves it very much as his home and as a place where he feels most like himself. I also think the book is just really thoughtfully and beautifully written and speaks to Black masculinity and hip hop and coming of age in the ‘90s/2000s in a way that I think will resonate with a lot of people. The essays on Gil Scott-Heron, Three Six Mafia, Lupe Fiasco and on gentrification in Baltimore—okay, all of the essays I’ve read so far have been compelling and interesting. Like with Mester’s work, I feel like I’m talking to a friend.
3) Show, Don’t Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld
Fine, okay, I like everything that I’ve been reading lately lol but this short story collection has had a hold on me too. Something that I think makes Sittenfeld’s stories so propulsive is that they all have some mystery—big or small—that you’re reading to find out more about. There’s a story with a missing dog (did they find him?), there’s a story where the protagonist is trying to convince a Christian Texan self-help writer to be more gay-friendly for the movie adaptation of his book, and now I need to know if that worked out, there’s a story where an artist is doing a bunch of one-on-one hangs with men to prove that men and women can be friends since Mike Pence said—at least in the world of this story—that they couldn’t be. It’s all very specific and still relatable somehow. Also—something that I wanna give her major props for—she has stories with a racial element, particularly a Black-White dynamic. Sittenfeld’s able to both write three-dimensional Black characters and talk about race in a way that isn’t like ultra-guarded and doesn’t require a ton of emotional labor from her Black characters. For a book that’s not about race, per se, she writes about it thoughtfully and well.
4) “My Couples Retreat with 3 AI Chatbots and the Humans Who Love Them” by Sam Apple
I actually can’t stop thinking about this profile in WIRED lol Roxane Gay mentioned it in one of her culture roundups, and I started reading it when I was on the treadmill one night, and wow. I recommend it not as someone who is pro-AI (remember when we used to frolic in fields? remember when we kept our phones at home, passed each other notes in class, made homemade videos on chunky camcorders that would gather dust in the basement?), but as someone who is interested in how it’s developing relationally. Sam Apple interviews three people who are in love with AI chatbots and talks to them about what they gain from these relationships, as well as what makes them complicated. I think the nonjudgmental air, even while writing about something that can be really tricky to navigate kindly, makes it an especially compelling piece. While of course there are so many consequences to prevalent AI usage—the environmental concerns, the inability to express oneself in writing, the layoffs (!)—this piece isn’t foaming at the mouth and so is able to get deeper into the subject in a way that might not be possible otherwise. It feels like Her IRL and in detail.
5) The Hunting Wives (Netflix)
Okay, I did not know what this show was about and almost skipped over it until I kept seeing people calling it very gay on social media, which prompted me to investigate, and reader, it is very gay! It’s like The L Word level gay, and it’s also set in Texas, and all of the characters have guns, and people get shot like in absurd ways and then you have to figure out whodunnit because it’s also a murder mystery?? I don’t know—it’s hard to explain but if you are tired of thinking at the end of the day and just want to sink into a world that is probably very different from your own, this is a good one to get into. I watched it in like two sittings, but it could probably be done in one (or 8! pace it out! go outside and breathe the air or whatever!).
Some other good culture things I’ve been into lately:
The New Yorker: Poetry Podcast — such a great ode to—and way to think through—the craft of poetry
“And Just Like That, And Just Like That…Is Dead” by Rachel Handler — this Vulture article on what the Sex & the City spin-off And Just Like That… meant to people was really funny and thoughtful
Eddington — this movie was in theaters (at least in ATL) for like 2 seconds but was so unhinged and propulsive — it also navigates race in a way that I found provocative and interesting (the Black character—who was also a cop?!—had an interiority beyond what the White characters could access, even as talk about race in the town bubbled up after George Floyd)
Image: Netflix
